PODXL and cancer: The pooled HR and 95% CI indicated that high-expressed PODXL was significantly related to poor OS in patients with various cancers (HR = 2.33, 95% CI = 1.76–3.09, P < 0.0001) with a significant heterogeneity across these studies (I2 = 63.4%, P = 0.001) (Fig.2a).